A unique and distinctive culture emerges from the Burning Man experience. Rooted in the values expressed by the Ten Principles, this culture is manifested around the globe through art, communal effort, and innumerable individual acts of self-expression. To many, it is a way of life.

You may have noticed a proliferation of drones (those zippy little helicopter gizmos) humming around the skies of Black Rock City in recent years … or you’ve enjoyed the amazing photos and video footage they’ve shot over our fair city. Well, now that there’s so many of them, let’s make sure we’re all droning safely and in a coordinated way to avoid any mishaps, shall we? Right.

So … are you a drone or UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operator? Or are you thinking about becoming one? Are you planning to bring one (or several) to Black Rock City? Will you be using a camera mounted on a UAV to take images in BRC? Are you looking to connect with drone operators for a playa project? Are you just interested in learning more about those flying things?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are invited to join us for the first ever Black Rock City Drone Summit. This will be an opportunity to share information about your projects and to help make Black Rock City an innovative, educational and fun Drone Zone.

http://diytech.tgdaily.com/story/maker/rules-promulgated-for-drone-flying-at-bu/6a6a344d2f5a796b544f6a61316c71316776507543773d3dFTA:A sign of the times, the burning man festival has its own unmanned aircraft rules out ahead of the FAA Even to the extent of creating registrations and privacy guidelines, who thought a process started in 2007 by the FAA and still not completed could be so straightforward! (ed)Participants flying unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones, RC airplanes, etc.) have developed a set of best practices for flying at Black Rock City this year.The best practices came out of a July 17“Drone Summit” at Burning Man headquarters that had 40 in attendance and an estimated 100 on a teleconference. Burning Man organizers arranged the summit following participant complaints from BM2012 that included UAVs flying over crowds at the Man burn, one UAV flying at the Temple burn, and a concern that UAVs with cameras were invading peoples’ privacy.Anyone with a concern or question can report it at Media Mecca in Center Camp. If the concern is regarding a specific vehicle, it will help to get the vehicle’s identification number (UAVs typically have very short flight times). Burning Man organizers will be assessing how well the guidelines were followed and participants’ concerns as part of a post-event review.

.......................................................................................Oh yeah, this year I was totally twerping out at the fence. ~Lonesombri

I think these hit the official level of annoyance this year. While I'm sure there will be some cool video produced by them, there's one mind-blowing paradox that I've not been able to figure out. As a photography and technology enthusiast, I'm torn:

Picture policy in BRC is to ask first. This is something I follow assuming someone is discernible in a photo (and it's not a picture w/ a crowd in a background or whatever). Some of those drones get quite close up, and of course there are zooms on lenses. Allowing them seems like there are two policies that defy each other.

Just my two yen. I'm not going to cry fowl too much, but I also won't promise I won't throw a can of beer (or something that won't cause such moop) at one if it gets too close to my head... something which happened to my woman. Okay, maybe that's extreme...

The only photo policy that exists involves money being made on the photos. For that you've gotta pony up your pound of flesh for permission -- which does not include permission from the people being photographed.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

ePlayans: Please pass along this message to any drone operator you know...

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF [insert deity here], DO NOT FLY DRONES INSIDE THE MAN PERIMETER WHILE PYROS ARE WORKING!

There were at least two drones to enter L3K and approach the man while we were working with live product and large gas mortars. I see this as a major problem in the future since drones are increasing exponentially. Please, please, please tell your drone friends to respect the dangerous work performed on the man all day Saturday. A drone or RC could prematurely ignite product and fatally injure those helping to give you your show.

Burning Man's number one rule of etiquette for photography is Ask First – you should get permission before taking somebody's photo.

The rule of etiquette seems to be to use your head and to not invade people's privacy... for many reasons which should be obvious. Drones kind of take a shit all over everyone's privacy. So there's a rule of etiquette (which most people follow) that's urged by BMorg, that the drones seem to bypass, and annoy the majority in the meantime.

Drones will end up banned or very tightly regulated, unfortunately. There's pretty much no other way around it. Someone's going to get hurt, like that kid that died today in the freak (1st or 2nd of its kind, ever, I believe?) remote control helicopter accident today/yesterday, and then BMORG won't have a choice.

It'd be great if people regulated themselves, but that doesn't really happen reliably in a group of 60k people. I just hope it doesn't happen until I get a chance to play with a drone there someday. I want to buzz the Altitude Lounge. Gonna go all Tom Cruise on their asses.

kiss-o-matic wrote:The rule of etiquette seems to be to use your head and to not invade people's privacy... for many reasons which should be obvious. Drones kind of take a shit all over everyone's privacy. So there's a rule of etiquette (which most people follow) that's urged by BMorg, that the drones seem to bypass, and annoy the majority in the meantime.

"Rules" of etiquette... that's cute.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

Out of the five fellow camera-enabled drone operators I spoke with only one other had done what they were supposed to and registered with media mecca. Personally I tried to ask permission any time I was filming an individual in a way they could be identifiable. This happened once - the quality of the camera I have on my drone is abysmal.

Most operators did not comply with the best practices / rules as set out by the BMORG, FAA or AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics). This included flying dreadfully close to crowds, over four hundred feet, and most commonly - flying out of line of sight. Both times I saw a Phantom DJI (easily identifiable by their green/red light pattern) crash during burn night - whoever flying it was nowhere in sight. In one case it slowly drifted to the ground to be kicked by random burners. In another case the drone fell from nearly a hundred feet hard onto an art car - fortunately not hitting anyone.

It's a shame that these irresponsible gits will ruin it for everyone else. If for no other reason than it would totally complicate my plan to make a drone that plays Free Bird.

So two of us saw the same thing, so it wasn't totally a hallucination....

Is there a drone that could have looked like an unlighted flock of 6 or so birds flying together, low and straight and pretty fast between the temple and the man Friday night? It was either some strange drone, an unlikely flock of geese, or a UFO? We decided its was a strange drone.

Out of the five fellow camera-enabled drone operators I spoke with only one other had done what they were supposed to and registered with media mecca.

Was I the one?I did a short flight pre-open at my camp before media mecca opened but made sure to get down there and finish up my paperwork Monday morning. The "MEDIA" lammy is AWESOME! I'm neither experienced, rich or stupid enough to do some of the stuff I saw others doing during the burns and in crowds. I was happy to get footage straight up from the back of the city near my camp and a little bit out in sparse playa...

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